The “provisions” given for that final exercise of life are nothing less than the precious body and blood of the Lord Jesus. “ Viaticum” is a Latin word meaning, literally, “provisions for the journey,” and the word itself was more commonly used in connection with the offering of Last Rites - in the sacrament of extreme unction, after the last anointing and prayers for a person dying or in danger of death. Age has never been a barrier to holiness. Young girls and boys, too, are capable of loving Jesus so much that they would die for him. Through Sister’s telling that brief story, this little kid sitting near the back of classroom 1-A learned that belief in Jesus’ true presence in the Eucharist goes back to the earliest days of Christianity - and has always been worth defending - and that for God, heroism, holiness and love for the Eucharist has never been exclusively reserved to adults only. He died as he was being carried away, with viaticum - food for his journey home - still clutched to his chest. At some point, the group of boys evolved into an angry mob that overcame Tarcisius, who went down under their blows. Knowing that he was a Christian and curious about what Tarcisius carried, the gang of boys tried to pry it from the fold of the garment in which he’d been holding it. On his way there, he was recognized by a group of friends who invited Tarcisius to play in their games. A boy named Tarcisius (as a child hearing this, I imagined him to be my age, perhaps a little older), volunteered to take the holy Eucharist to Christians in prison. It was a moment in time, but I have never forgotten that story because I was very impressed.ĭuring the 3rd century, Christians had to meet secretly to avoid persecution. It took my teacher Sister Lydia probably 90 seconds to tell us the story of St.
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